See how the offshore wind industry can power your future!

Welcome

The UK’s world-leading offshore wind industry is growing fast and is set to boom for years to come. Working closely with the Government, the industry Council is aiming to supply more than one third of our country’s electricity needs by 2030, powering not just homes, offices and factories but also electric vehicles and heating systems too.

With this ambitious vision comes a huge economic opportunity – to build an industry that will support thousands of jobs throughout the UK, particularly in coastal regions where communities are reaping the economic benefits of offshore wind.

This is a dynamic and innovative sector, offering a variety of professionally rewarding and well-paid career paths. You can make a difference by playing a part in helping to increase the amount of clean power we generate, cutting the UK’s carbon emissions by millions of tonnes every year. This interactive map highlights just some of the great employment, educational and community beneﬁts across different regions of the UK – now and in the future.

Powering a green future

The UK offshore wind industry is playing a key role in helping the Government to achieve its clean growth ambitions, cutting the use of fossil fuels.

Offshore wind is not only a clean energy source, it is a stable and reliable source of power – enabling us to deliver secure electricity to our homes now, and for future generations to come. It will form the backbone of the UK’s clean energy system of the future.

Check out these ten powerful facts of offshore wind!

A future of innovation

Innovation is key to expanding the UK offshore wind sector and reaching 30GW of capacity by 2030. From the very first cloth-sailed turbines to the giant turbines operating offshore today, our industry has been built on UK innovation.

Key to driving change and continuing the industry’s growth will be data and mechanical engineers, materials and computer scientists, who contribute to the UK’s world- leading academic and research expertise. Our robot designers and operators will also develop our technological lead in emerging high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and digitalisation, offering new and exciting opportunities for those working in the sector.

Looking to the future:

Cables will be more efficient and resilient, and the electrical infrastructure to connect homes to power will be more sophisticated

Blades will be even longer

Turbines will be taller, lighter and more efficient, with drive trains upscaling to 12MW+

Floating wind technologies will grow in scale and importance

The use of drones and robotics to manage or repair turbines will become more widespread

These different roles are focused at different phases of offshore wind development. Click below to learn more about the different life cycle stages and the different elements that work together to make an offshore wind farm:

Investing in bigger, more powerful projects

The UK offshore wind workforce continues to grow as we invest in, and build more powerful projects. The world’s largest wind turbine is 260m tall, with its blades spanning the size of the London Eye, and each blade rotation producing enough power to run your house for a day (or your electric car for 40 miles).

A global leader

The UK offshore environment has consistently strong wind speeds which are perfect for generating power from turbines. The UK has installed more offshore wind capacity than any other country in the world and is leading in the global market in this technology. The biggest projects are in UK waters. In September 2018, the largest offshore wind farm in the world – Walney Extension off the coast of Cumbria – was officially opened. It will supply power to 590,000 homes.

As our industry continues to grow, offshore wind is set to be the mainstay of the UK’s future energy supply and a high-value UK sector. Our exports are set to increase fivefold to £2.6bn a year by 2030, creating jobs in every part of the UK. We are already exporting our offshore wind expertise and products to 22 countries across 5 continents.

Watch this video about Galloper Wind Farm to learn more about a UK offshore wind project.